Best Moments And Candid Steve Jobs Quotes From The iPhone 4 Presentation

Here is a collection of our favorite moments from the iPhone 4 presentation that Steve Jobs gave today. What follows is a set of candid answers Jobs gave at a Q&A afterward that wasn’t posted on Apple’s site.

To our knowledge, it’s not possible to make a phone that doesn’t have weakspots. You could make a really big one! I mean, some of these guys are making Hummers at this point. But no one’s going to buy that.

On BlackBerry Bold, specifically, sharing this problem:

Q: I can’t get my [BlackBerry] Bold to drop [a call] right now, maybe you can show me how to do it?

A: You may not see it in certain areas.

On reportedly having prior knowledge of the antenna issue:

Q: Were you warned about this issue?

A: I assume you’re talking about the Bloomberg article. It’s a crock. I’ve challenged them to prove it. I’ve talked to Ruben (the antenna engineer who supposedly warned Jobs during the design process) and he agrees it’s bullshit.

We’ve been around for 34 years… haven’t we earned the credibility and the trust of the press? I think we have that from our users. I didn’t see it exhibited by some of the press as this was blown so far out of proportion.

On overtime:

I don’t think we could run any faster – we’ve had cots in the labs, cars in the parking lots all night, we’ve been living here.

On vacation time:

Q: How’s your health, Steve? How are you doing?
A: I’m fine! I was on vacation in Hawaii, but this was important enough to come back for.

On patriotism:

Would you rather we were a Korean company, instead of an American company? Would you rather we weren’t innovating right here?

On precautionary measures:

Sometimes websites buy stolen prototypes and put ‘em on the web, and we don’t care for that. But if we give the designs to case makers, they have a history of putting them up on the web as well.

On the reportage of the New York Times:

Q: NY Times says this might have a software fix, is this something that can be helped with software?

A: We just spent the last hour going through how the iPhone 4 drops only 1 more call per hundred than the 3GS. … Go talk to the Times, because you guys talk to yourselves a lot, and they’re just making this stuff up.

On life in a brick house:

I use it in my home—and I live in a brick house. And I’ve gotten reception where I haven’t gotten it before, I’m thrilled. That doesn’t mean other people don’t have problems, but that’s been my experience.